国产麻豆

By thinking outside of the box, keeping their employees informed and creating new solutions for their challenges, the Nicholas County Landfill has transitioned to an innovative operation.

Located in central West Virginia, near the Gauley River, the Nicholas County Landfill has made many transitions from being a 鈥渄ump鈥� 10 years ago to the innovative operation that it is today. Although anyone who lives in West Virginia may dispose of waste at the Nicholas County Landfill, waste is received on a regular basis from not only Nicholas County, but also Webster, Clay, Braxton and Fayette Counties. It is run by the Nicholas County Solid Waste Authority (NCSWA), which is made up of a five board members who meet once per month. Currently, NCSWA employs 14 staff members, including the Executive Director, Larry Bradford (who runs the landfill operations and reports its status to the board at the end of the month), a full time Engineer and Nicholas County鈥檚 only Litter Control Officer.

When Executive Director, Larry Bradford, took the position nine years ago, there were no paved roads leading into the facility. 鈥淐ustomers who brought waste to the facility were actually pulled by dozers in and out of the waste disposal cell and back out.鈥� Now, the roads are paved and outbound/inbound sensory scales were installed so public access is a much more smooth process. The operation has grown from three employees and three pieces of equipment to 14 employees and 26 pieces of equipment, including dozers, excavators, rock trucks, construction equipment and compactors. All of the landfill鈥檚 construction has also been done in-house. The only part of construction still bid out is the liner installation. 鈥淚n the State of West Virginia, if you bid out from a State entity, you have a prevailing wage that has to be paid out to the employees and it drives the construction costs way up. It was less expensive for us to hire the employees, get the equipment and do it ourselves; plus, it creates short-term jobs for area residents,鈥� says Bradford. Even though a landfill operation is an ongoing process, Bradford is very pleased with where it stands now. For instance, part of the property has a full-scale softball field that is already being used and they are in the process of building a soccer field. 鈥淎s the closed parts of our landfill move to the rear of the property, we are changing them into a usable resource; so on the day that we finally close all the landfill, it will be a park and sports complex for the community.鈥�

听

Thinking Outside of the Box

From fuel prices, equipment costs, legal fees, disposal fees for CED鈥檚 (covered electronic devices) and just inflation in general, the economy in the past year has greatly affected Nicholas County Landfill. Due to the coal mines shutting down in accordance with the EPA rulings, a large part of the waste stream, including metals and heavy wood products, in the landfill has gone down significantly鈥攄ecreasing by 300 to 400 tons per month. 鈥淭he two main industries in Nicholas County are coal mining and logging. Both of these industries have been hard hit with regulations. This in turn affects our waste stream. As jobs shut down we not only lose the waste generated by these companies but many residents relocate to find employment which further reduces our waste stream,鈥� says Bradford.听 As a result, the NCSWA has attempted to stay ahead of the curve by seeking new ways to bring in new revenues such as the newly opened C&D (construction and demolition) cell, which is a lot cheaper to construct since it just has to have a clay liner and leachate system verses a double HDPE liner system that is very costly 鈥淐ontractors who tear down old buildings can bring their waste to us for $37.50 per ton vs. municipal waste which is about $69.25 per ton, so it鈥檚 a large savings and it makes the price feasible for the community for them to tear down these eyesores and dispose of them correctly,鈥� says Bradford. 鈥淧lus, we were hit by Super Storm Sandy last year and lost 27 businesses and residential damage in this County. The 48 inches of snow just collapsed stores and businesses all over the County, so we鈥檝e also lowered the price in order to relieve some of their pain of getting rid of that stuff.鈥�

Bradford explains that the NCSWA also goes out and educates the public on recycling and the options the NCSWA offers. 鈥淲e actually give presentations in the classrooms and have developed a recycling competition, giving out monetary awards for first, second and third place which they can use to buy supplies, playground equipment, etc. Also Raleigh County Solid Waste Authority has a robot named Kirby which they allow us to use for classroom education and he does his speech about recycling鈥攖hat鈥檚 a real attention getter.鈥� In addition, the NCSWA speaks at boy and girl scout meetings, senior citizens meetings, church meetings and any group that calls and asks for someone to go through the recycling process, the advantages of sorting and separation and how it comes down to saving them money. Plus the landfill gives tours to the public. 鈥淲e have a bus that we put them on, give them a tour and dinner afterwards鈥攚e are always willing to show off what we鈥檝e done,鈥� says Bradford. On the landfill鈥檚 Free Day, people or customers in the community can bring in 520 pounds of waste without paying a fee, which encourages people to get rid of their waste correctly. The lines on Free Day have an upward wait of two hours.听 Plus, the landfill works very closely with the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) on the Reap Program, which does open dump cleanups, illegal dumps and tire piles. The landfill sends out crews to help clean up, by supplying the labor and machinery, while the DEP pays the tipping fee. The Nicholas County Solid Waste Authority works closely with the Nicholas Day Reporting Center who supplies the Authority with clients who have been sentenced to Community service to help in cleanup of open dumps and roadside litter.听 The Authority then picks up the litter and the WV DEP REAP Program pays the tipping fee.

Keeping Everyone Informed

Bradford is one of the founding members as well as the current president of the West Virginia Landfill Managers Association. He and his Vice President James Allen, Executive Director of the Raleigh County Solid Waste Authority conduct all of the MOLO (Managers of Landfill Operations) training for the State as well as reach out to other landfills to seek ways to help them with issues they face. 鈥淚nstead of travelling all over the country, we bring training into our State through SWANA and train landfill managers and DEP inspectors either here or at their location. We also do private trainings for Waste Management鈥攖hey have such a large employment that they may call and say hey we need to do a training at a specific location and we鈥檒l go there and train their employees. SWANA is great to work with鈥攖hey just bend over backwards to help us out,鈥� he says. Training sessions are usually held once every three months at which time Bradford will call everyoneat each landfill or place of business and tell them that they will have a training session within the next 60 days. As far as in-house, employees are offered training on safety, hazmat, CDL, CPR training and personal training for construction on the site.

In addition, every Monday morning, Beth Armstrong, the landfill鈥檚 Office Administrator, leads a different safety topic. Then, on Thursday, a pop quiz on the topic is given to find out if it soaked in. Training is also given on how to recognize hazardous waste, red bags vs. yellow bags, etc. When hazardous waste happens to come into the facility, Bradford says they isolate it and call the DEP who sends a team to check it out and tells the landfill how and where to properly dispose of it. 鈥淲e actually have camera systems installed that look down into the load to see everything coming in. We鈥檒l do sporadic waste screens where we鈥檒l unload and go through with an excavator to check and see if there is anything hazardous. We鈥檒l do this a couple of times per week so no one knows its coming. We鈥檝e been very fortunate that we haven鈥檛 had anything too significant.鈥�

Curbside Recycling Program

Bradford points out that the NCSWA鈥檚 greatest achievement by far has been its Curbside Recycling Program and Senior Program. In 2010, NCSWA began the State of West Virginia鈥檚 only Curbside Recycling Program, which operates without the aid of any grant money or even support from the State Solid Waste Management Board (WVSWMB), the supporting agency for Solid Waste Authorities in West Virginia. The Curbside Recycling Program picks up recycling at curbside throughout the entire county.听 This voluntary program is supported and maintained solely by the sale of recycling bags to those who wish to participate. The NCSWA also sells the recyclable materials, including steel and precious metals. It is processed through Raleigh County Recycling Center who markets the material and gives the NCSWA back a dividend. With the Authorities color coded bag system 99 percent of the materials collected are a clean product ready for marketing. NCSWA has found that the advantages of the bag program outweigh an unmanned drop off location.听 Drop off locations for recycling which is unmanned lead to illegal dumping of waste in bins intended for recycling.听 The entire load of recycling will then be contaminated and must be disposed of as waste. Using a fleet of eight trucks to pick up the recycling material, the NCSWA hits everyone in Nicholas County including the people in the outlying areas.

鈥淲hen the NCSWA developed this program, we put it out there on a trial basis, starting small with our biggest city the in the county, which is Summersville. The next thing we knew, the phone was ringing off the hook with people in the outlying areas, wanting to get involved as well as the school system and all the county entities, government agencies, etc.,鈥� says Bradford. 鈥淚t was at this point that we realized that our senior citizens were paying the same monthly bill as a regular household, which on average is about $18 to $19 per month when most of our senior citizens only produce four bags per month, so we came up with the Senior Program. If you are 62 and over, you can get the wet waste pickup by the bag right at curbside鈥攊t makes their cost go down to $4 to $5 per month.鈥� In a County of 26,000 people that are not mandated to recycle, the NCSWA has created recycling programs that have encouraged people to not only participate, but also buy the recycling and wet waste bags. 鈥淲e use that as an incentive to show them how recycling cuts down on their waste and makes their garbage bill cheaper. As a result, it took off like wildfire.鈥�

In fact, SWANA recognized the program in 2012 at their annual conference. 鈥淎lthough we came in fourth that year in the category of Recycling Systems, our program was so unique that they recognized us nationally with the other three winners. SWANA encouraged us to continue to promote its programs by recognizing its accomplishments and for its design and implementation,鈥� says Bradford. 鈥淛ohn Skinner, Jesse Maxwell and Estella Martinez of SWANA have been a huge encouragement and their help has been invaluable in promoting the NCSWA recycling program.听 It was only after SWANA recognized the NCSWA recycling program that the Governor of West Virginia, Earl Ray Tomblin was even made aware of the NCSWA Curbside Recycling Program.听 He then also recognized NCSWA for its programs and achievements in recycling that same year.鈥�

Political Challenges

Bradford explains that some of the challenges the Nicholas County Landfill has face the last few years has been regulations passed by agencies charged with oversight of Solid Waste Authorities and landfills without an evaluation on how these regulations will affect not only the public but landfill operations. 鈥淚n 2011, Senate Bill 398 pass on CEDs, which banned electronics from landfills. Although we received a letter telling us you cannot put them in the landfill anymore, it also stated we still had to take them. So we end up disposing of them ourselves at a different facility and paying about 35 cents per pound to get rid of these TVs and computer monitors. Last year, the overall cost was about $36,000. We are still trying to find a better solution. We can鈥檛 keep eating the cost because it takes money away from our recycling programs and everything else,鈥� says Bradford. The cost is anticipated to double in the coming year. Bradford believes that before the State Legislaturepassed this ruling, they should have gotten public comment, and met with landfill managers and directors to come up with a solution, including disposal and fees. The landfill used to charge to dispose of TVs, however they had backlash from a private hauler who filed a complaint with public service who, in turn, sent the landfill an order to stop charging the TV disposal fee. 鈥淪ome of the other six public landfills in the state are charging upwards of 25 dollars per TV but no one filed a complaint against them so they are allowed to do that. We are the only ones that have been ordered not to charge. I am in the appeal process right now and they,the WV PSC are going to give us a rate. However, even if they give us a rate by the end of the year, we can鈥檛 recoup the previous costs and it will take money from other programs.鈥� NCSWA still maintains that CED鈥檚 are a recycled item and the WV PSC cannot regulate recycled items.

Not only is the landfill going through legal challenges, but theNCSWA also continues to face opposition from the West Virginia Solid Waste Management Board, staff and its Executive Director regarding the Curbside Recycling Program. The staff of the WVSWMB continues to try to persuade NCSWA Board members to abolish the recycling and senior programs. Bradford explains that traditional recycling which relied on grant funding was tried in Nicholas County in years past, however, because there is no money to operate it form year to year, it discourages the public and they quit participating. So the NCSWA developed the Curbside Recycling Program to be self-sufficient, not relying on any grant money, and now in its third year, it continues to grow every day. 鈥淲e sign up about five to 12 people per week and we are still trying to reach the people in the outlying areas. We try the media and everything we can to get the message out there and sometimes you just have to go door to door.鈥� Unfortunately, the WVSMB staff and its Executive Director support a local hauler who filed suit against the authority to have our wet waste portion of the recycling program stopped.听 The case was heard in January of 2013 in Nicholas County Circuit Court.听 The Honorable Judge Gary Johnson found in favor of the Authority ruling that the Authority can pickup wet waste. The local hauler has appealed this decision to the West Virginia Supreme Court and the NCSWA is currently awaiting their ruling, which is anticipated to remain the same as Judge Johnson鈥檚 ruling. 鈥淵ou wouldn鈥檛 believe how political landfills are,鈥� says Bradford. 鈥淚 didn鈥檛 know I was getting into politics more than disposal鈥攂ut we鈥檝e done well. We have a good board here and we鈥檙e one of the smallest in the state and we do 26,000 ton per year. I鈥檓 very pleased with what we are doing.鈥�

Looking Forward

Future goals for the Nicholas County Landfill include developing public relations and to continue to promote recycling and recycling education. 鈥淲e will continue to think outside the box to find ways to do this. The best tool that we鈥檝e had so far is the students of the county. We work with them from Kindergarten through high school and this really gets the message out there,鈥� says Bradford. 鈥淲e are going to continue to try to keep their interest in it. Just extra money going into the school systems really pays off. We鈥檝e done 16 schools in the county and we actually have a business that sponsors the bag for each school every year. Our citizens have also really stepped up to the plate on this.鈥� Bradford also says the NSCWA will continue to run the best landfill in the State.听 Although the Nicholas County Landfill is the smallest landfill in West Virginia, there is a wide variety of services offered to the public to meet their disposal needs.听 鈥淲e are excited to continue to develop ways to make our landfill environmentally friendly and watch recycling and recycling education grow in Nicholas County. If you take care of your community your community will take care of you.鈥�

For more information, contact NCSWA鈥檚 Executive Director, Larry Bradford, at (304) 742-3518 or e-mail [email protected]